Not so safe afterall...

So it turns out that a couple of children were *almost* abducted this weekend in our neighborhood. One was at TYLER'S SCHOOL!!!! on Friday afternoon (after he had left). An 8 year old boy was playing alone and he saw a car that looked like a relative's, but wasn't, and the man tried to get the boy to go with him. Thankfully he ran away. Then over the weekend a 9 year old girl was riding her bike and fell off and a man stopped to help her and then asked if she wanted to pet his dog. She ran away too. Oh My God. I can not believe these things are happening in my neighborhood. We live in the middle of nowhere! Why would someone drive all the way up here to abduct a child? Unless they lived here... So I looked on the Registry of Sex Offenders to see if there are any nearby and sure enough, two live within 2 miles of my house.

So now I'm feeling like a very bad mother because I felt safe and let my kids play outside in the front yard (they know never to go in the street or even down the sidewalk unless I'm outside with them) while I'm cooking dinner or changing my clothes after work. We had a big long discussion about going with strangers or helping strangers look for a dog or a ball. I think Tyler gets it but Gavin is way too young to understand. He just went off on a tangent about other things we can do to be a good boy. ;)

I have no idea how possible or likely it is that they will find the person(s) who did this - it doesn't actually sound like it's the same person because two different vehicles were driven. Of course, I'm sure a sex offender could have two vehicles. I hope it is the same person... Although now that it was on the news and internet and everything, perhaps they know they're being watched for and won't strike again - at least not in this area. But thinking things like that is what made me feel all safe in the first place.

Ugh.